When a Stranger Calls (DVD, 2006)

In a remote hilltop house, high school student Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle) settles in for a routine night of babysitting. With the children sound asleep and a beautiful home to explore, she locks the door and sets the alarm. But when a series of eerie phone calls from a stranger insist that she "check the children," Jill begins to panic. Fear escalates to terror when she has the calls traced and learns that they are coming from inside the house. Jill must summon all of her inner strength if she is going to fight back and make it out of the house alive.

I think somewhere in Hollywood, in a dark deep basement with little light and air there is a group of studio executives green lighting films because they hate us as a movie going public. Maybe they’re failed actors who once aspired of being famous or maybe they are little goblins who just delight in the torture of movies audiences but its clear they are out to get us. I can’t find any other plausible reason other than them snorting mountains of crack cocaine on why somewhere during the filming of this movie or maybe in post-production they didn’t push their pile of crack away and say “damn this movie sucks.” Why does this movie suck you ask because it was like it was written for a group of fourteen year old girls who have never seen a horror or suspense movie in their life or for that matter the trailer. The studio executives hate you so much they don’t even bother to hide anything from you in the trailer, they let you know the villain is going to get into the house which you probably could have guessed unless you had been practicing juggling bricks before the movie began. So we know the villain is going to end up in the house yet we must endure an hour of so-called suspense where the movie tries to thrill us with the fact that just maybe their just might be a chance the villain could get into the house. Does that sound like someone had been smoking crack cocaine or juggling bricks for that matter when they filmed this movie or marketed it for that matter, if it doesn’t you need to push that mountain of crack away and just say no.

I don’t think I have ever seen a movie break every single horror and movie cliché before but I think When a Stranger Calls does. Hide and Seek came close but wow I almost think they had to be trying to make a movie this bad and this clichéd. First off the lead character two minutes after arriving to the house and before anything has happened or even the first call is made she is jumpier than if you had dropped a bag of scorpions down her dress. There is no reason for her to be this insanely nervous, if the cat looked at her wrong she was liable to grab a fire poker and try and kill it. If you didn’t feel insulted by this then you weren’t paying attention the first girl getting killed was for the audiences benefit not for the lead character to be afraid of her own shadow. And when will makers of movies like this stop making every scary moment so darned transparent, keying the music up right before you try and make me jump is like slapping me in the face then telling me I should like it. Stop now, its gotten ridiculous, its not scary, its not terrifying and you should be ashamed of yourself, oh and by the way brand new cars don’t take 14 tries to start it just doesn’t happen ever.

Lucky for us Camilla Belle is nineteen years old because she must have slept with someone to get this part that or it has gotten way to easy to get movie parts in Hollywood movies

When a stranger calls was a remake of the 1979 horror film featuring the oh so cool Carol Kane ( who also played a roll in Confessions of a teenage drama queen)who played Jill Johnson. Now playing Jill Johnson is pretty Camilla Belle (who played a roll in the Ballad of Jack and Rose). The remake is based on the first fifteen minutes of the original, which is musch more different than the remake.

Jill Johnson is a high schooler who is grounded for running her cell phone minutes over by... um... 800! And to pay for it, she landed a babysitting gig while her friends are at a school bonfire.

The house Jill is babysitting is gigantic! It nestles by a huge lake in the mountains of Colorado. The two children Jill is babysitting are tucked in their beds, sick with the flu. Jill has the whole house to herself pratically, besides the mexican housemaid Rosa, who turns up dead.

As Jill just sits in the living room, bored, the phone rings and she answers it... the person hangs up. As the whole game of cat and mouse plays on, the stranger asks "Have you checked the children?" Jill goes upstairs to check on them and find them perfectly safe. Another phone calls and the stranger asks, "how were the children?" Horrified Jill phones the police and after Jill hangs on the phone with the stranger for 60 seconds, they tell her that the calls are coming from "Inside the House".

Wanting to get out of the house, Jill finds her friend Tiffany dead, and check on the kids, seeing that they were not harmed. But in the original, the children were murdered (strange).

The stranger and Jill face off one to one in an epic battle of wits. The whole ending is what it was predicted to come out... Jill survives and the stranger goes to jail... Our heroine wins!

If you ask for my opinion, I think this is like a lifetime original movie... nothing extreme happens until the last fifteen minutes of the movie. It has way too much suspence but not enough terror and gore we were all looking for. There are cats jumping out of closets and ice forming in the freezer, those probobly are your biggest jumps...

Jordan
Overall grade* C+

The original "When a Stranger Calls" (starring the multi-faceted Carol Kane) is a classic horror film for many reasons, including: (a) superb acting, (b) superb directing, and (c) the perfect balance between pure horror and psychological suspense. The storyline is interesting and many things happen to keep the plot constantly moving forward. It's also an intelligent movie, requiring the audience to figure things out and make its own discoveries.
All this said, the re-make does not do it justice. Simon West took the first fifteen minutes of the original (when Carol Kane is babysitting, which is simply the introduction to the film) and stretched them out to create an entire movie. The scenes are monotonous and repetitive, and the acting isn't very good. Also, the character of the killer was very much toned down; in fact, we never really know his motivation or get a glimpse into his psyche (as was done extremely well in the original version). This makes him unrealistic, underdeveloped, and not very frightening.
Perhaps the lack of characterization and graphic violence may be explained due to the fact that this re-make was made for a younger audience (probably under 16 years of age). In any case, this is clearly not a mature horror film. It's lacking in substance, depth, and innovation.
If you're a fan of good old horror movies (i.e. Last House on the Left, Evil Dead, Psycho, The Shining, Suspiria, etc), then I would HIGHLY recommend the original version of this movie instead of the re-make.

What should have been a routine babysitting gig at a secluded lake house turns into a night of terror,as high school student Jill Johnson (Camilla Belle)receives threatening phone calls from a sadistic stalker,while trying to stay one step ahead of him.What some people saying about this movie is just plain wrong,this movie is actually very good.Great acting,good directing,good special effects,and great writing.The acting was the overall best aspect because knowing that your basically the only person on the movie puts a lot of pressure on you and I believe Camilla showed no fear in being the main part in this movie and I believe she did a phenomenal job as the babysitter/main character. Overall I beleive this is one of the best movies of 2006 so far and that this movie did reach its true potential and if you like movies that will creep you out just enough,this movie is for you.

This was an okay movie and not quite what I expected it to be(which was kind of nice). Unfortunately, in my opinion, the same elements that make it interesting, also make it a bit mundane. Let me explain, the majority of the film takes place in the SAME EXACT location (i.e. babysitting house) with the SAME EXACT character (i.e. the babysitter). Throughout the movie it is the same thing- babysitter gets a prank phone call, babysitter freaks out, every little noise and sound freaks out the babysitter, then the noise/sound turns out to be nothing (or so she thinks) and over and over. I started to wonder if something sinister was actually happening, or if it was all in the babysitter's head. Let's face it, everyone of us has gotten a prank phone call at some point, or has been startled by a noise and it turns out to be nothing. This type of repetition made the entire movie very tense, which was rather tiring after the first hour. Then the climax of the show- where everything is resolved- takes place in the last 5 minutes- literally. This would be a GREAT movie for an all girls sleep over, where imaginations can run wild but in my opinion there is really no reason to watch it more than once (twice tops). It's just not worth the effort to get to the end...